Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington. Prayer during Battle of Waterloo at about 5.45 om on 18 June.

The Battle of Waterloo is one of the three most famous battles together with the Battle of Nieuwpoort (1600) and the Battle of Stalingrad (1943). The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday, 18 June 1815, near Waterloo, which is now part of Belgium, but was then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The allied victory over Napoleon Bonaparte brought an end to French domination of large parts of Europe and began a period of peace on the continent that lasted for nearly half a century. His defeat ended his rule of Emperor of the French, marking his end of his Hundred Days return from exile.

In 1814, twenty five years of war finally came to an end with the surrender of the Emperor Napoleon and his banishment to the Mediterranean island of Elba. The European powers began the task of restoring their continent to normality and peace.

On 1st March 1815 Napoleon escaped from Elba and landed in France. Nineteen days later he was in Paris and resumed his title as Emperor. His army rallied to him. The soldiers who had been captured during the years of fighting had been released enabling Napoleon to reform his Grande Armée.

The European allies reassembled their armies and prepared to resume the war to overthrow the Emperor yet again.

The Waterloo battlefield was very small in area even for the standards of those days.

Napoleon had approximately 74,000 troops and 256 guns.

Wellington had about 68,000 men and 156 guns. In time Blücher and the Prussians would arrive on the field with three corps, being some 70.000 men.

Allied order of battle:

The Duke of Wellington
Prince Willem of Orange
Lieutenant General Sir William Hill
Lieutenant General Prince Frederich, Duke of Brunswick
Quartermaster General: Major General Sir George Murray
Adjutant General: Major General Sir Edward Barne

The historian Andrew Roberts notes that “It is a curious fact about the Battle of Waterloo that no one is absolutely certain when it actually began”. Wellington recorded in his dispatches that at “about ten o’clock [Napoleon] commenced a furious attack upon our post at Hougoumont”. Other sources state that the attack began around 11:30.

The battle on the 18th of June 1815, short and brief:

General Cambronne is reputed to have answered a call to surrender with the words “The Guard dies but does not surrender”. Historian Peter Hofschröer has written that Wellington and Blücher met at Genappe around 22:00, signifying the end of the battle. Other sources have recorded that the meeting took place around 21:00 near Napoleon’s former headquarters at La Belle Alliance.

French casualties in the Battle of Waterloo were 25,000 men killed and wounded and 9,000 captured, while the allies lost about 23,000.

The Battle of Waterloo is famous for a number of reason. It is of historical importance because it definitively ended the series of wars that had convulsed Europe, and involved many other regions of the world, since the French Revolution of the early 1790s. It also ended the political and military career of Napoleon Bonaparte, imperian monarchist and one of the greatest commanders and statesmen in history. Finally, it ushered in almost half a century of international peace in Europe.

The Thistle and the Rose (The Thrissel and the Rois) William Dunbar, August 1503 in honor of the wedding between King James IV of Scotland to Princess Margaret Tudor of England.

The Tudor Rose is the symbol of the alliance between House of York (symbolized by a white rose) and the House of Lancaster (symbolized by a red rose). Both houses were branches of the Plantagenet royal house who could trace their descent from King Edward III (1312 – 1377). It is credited to the Tudor dynasty for combining those two and creating what we know now as The Tudor Rose.

Historians disagree on the Red Rose of Lancaster. Some say it was originally a symbol of Henry’s great-grandfather John of Gaunt, while others insist that it was assumed to the House of Lancaster by Henry VII only after the wars were over.

The actual symbolism behind the White Rose of York had religious connotations as it represents the Virgin Mary, who was often called the Mystical Rose of Heaven. In Christian liturgical symbolism, white is the symbol of light, typifing innocence and purity, joy and glory. The origins of the emblem are said to go back to Edmund of Langley in the fourteenth century.

It was the 22 of August 1485 when Henry VII (who was blood-tied to House Lancaster) though outnumbered, ended the “Wars of the Roses” after taking the crown of England from Richard III in battle, becoming Henry VII King of England. He spend two more years afterwards wiping out other claiments to the throne. The “Wars of the Roses” is a civil war in England that lasted from 1455 until 1487. Historians still debate the true extent of the impact on medieval English life, and some revisionists, such as the Oxford historian K.B. McFarlane, suggest that the conflicts during this period have been radically overstated, and that there were in fact, no “Wars of the Roses” at all. It is notable that they did not produce widespread destruction and economic recession. Many places were largely unaffected by the wars.

Here is a fun clip by the great Horrible Histories with a War of Roses Report:

During the wars, many of the inns and hostels in the Yorkshire countryside (and elswehere) had roses carved in the ceilings panels and beams of the bar room. This had nothing to do with the white rose of the House of York but with the term “Under-the-rose” or in Latin “Sub-Rosa”. Warlike matters and espionage issues discussed “under the rose” were treated as being very sensitive and not to be repeated to others under pain of death.

In January 1486 Henry VII married Elizabeth of York, bringing the houses historically together. The marriage was one of political brilliance: their children would have Yorkist and Lancastrian blood, owning united claim to the throne from both their mother as well as their father’s side. It was then that the Tudor Rose first made it appearance. During the medieval war, neither parties cared much about roses or flowers. They were not part of the official coat of arms. Instead, servants wore emblems of the flowers on their liveries (servant uniforms). It was only during his wedding that Henry VII adopted the bicoulored Tudor Rose as a badge, cleverly making use of the fact that during this time, signs and symbols spoke louder than words. During his reign, Henry VIII had the “Round Table” at Winchester Castle – then belived to be genuine – repainted. The new paint scheme included a Tudor rose in the centre.

The rose symbols were first brought to promincence by William Shakespeare in his play Henry VI part 1. He wrote a scene set in the gardens of the Temple Church, where a number of noblemen and a lawyer pick red or white roses to show their loyalty to the Lancastrian or Yorkist faction respectively. However, it was not until the later 18th century that historians began the acknowledge the symbolic reconciliation of the Tudor Rose. That in turn causes Sir Walter Scott to refer to the conflict as “The Wars of the Roses” in his historical novel Anne of Geierstein.